Life: Through the Lens

  The Ammi Wright House.  Built 1888.         Our town has some pretty remarkable older homes and businesses.  Many have already been restored and are residences and/or businesses.   We went to a meeting the other night which focused on how to go about restoring a beautiful old lumber Barron's home - the Ammi Wright house, just off the main street. It has been empty for a great many years and needs a lot of work to bring it back to life.  But this group of people can do it.   The building itself is already purchased as part of an agreement with the Gratiot Area Historical Society.  Located in a nearby town, they have purchased it and Alma will be part of this system.  We are now forming committees for all the areas which need to be addressed, including historical research, fundraising, publicity, etc.  Lots of work, and lots of interest.  There is a steering committee in place, and we all signed up for an area we feel...

Hurray!  I was able to access the photos on my new point-and-shoot so can continue my comparison between iPhone photography, point-and-shoot, and a digital SLR camera.  Let the fun continue! I will admit to having purchased a higher end point-and-shoot - a Canon G7x.  So far I am loving it! First I want to know I can get strong colors.  In the photo of the Grand Hotel, above, I think it handled the colors very well - the yellow is true, as well as the color of the flags.  The flowers show up well, as well, and the white is not overly bright. In the photos below, the top one is not the "best" photo,  as the leaves were moving a bit, but it handled the contrast between the red and green well.  I do think the leaves are a bit washed out, but it cold have been a lighting issue.  Just keep shooting and see. The red on the side of the barn, below,  is very true and bright.  The sun was late in the day, so the light was quite good...

I think the iPhone handled this well, though I will admit the shadows were  quite dark and I lightened them a bit in post-processing. I am in the process of putting together some materials for a workshop I will be giving next month.  One of the things I am going to cover is the difference between photographs taken on the iPhone, a smaller digital camera  (point-and-shoot), and the DSLR. These flowers were in the shadows, which I find the iPhone favors.  The  more even the light, the richer the photos are.  The color in this photo is very strong. As most of you have found, the iPhone does take good photos, and it's biggest plus is the phone's size and portability.  Very convenient and it works well in a lot of instances.   I want to see how well it works under a variety of circumstances, so I take it on walks with the dog, shopping with friends, and to work. The photos in this post are the results of my first "formal" com...

The Nina, left, and Pinta, moored in the marina. Remember the day of the eclipse?   It happened to be the day we finally had a chance to get out of town and spend some time adventuring.  We packed up Kaycee, a cooler, and headed to Traverse City to see the hand-built replicas of the Nina and Pinta. The Nina was built using only adzes, axes, hand saws and chisels, in addition to naturally-shaped  timbers from the local forest. She stands 65' long, 18' across the beam, with a draft of 7'. The sail area is 1, 919 sq. feet.  She took 32 months to build. Both ships are exact replicas of those sailed in 1492, and they are called the Columbus Ships.  They were built in Valenca, Brazil by eighth generation Portuguese shipwrights.  There is no home port for these ships, as they are moving 11 months of the year, providing educational opportunities to everyone.  There is no Santa Maria because she never made it back to Europe, she is too big to mak...

W is for Wonderkid  Find the Superhero in You by Linda Daugherty and Sandra Koch Wow!  Our book is finally published.  It has been such a lengthy process and the reward now sits on our tables, and on Amazon.com!  The journey has been bumpy, exciting, engaging, frustrating, worrisome, creative...all that it should be, I suppose. Approximately 10 years ago we sat down over coffee at our neighborhood Big Boy and began crafting a children's book, one which would engage young students, and help parents, grandparents, caregivers, and teachers teach children social skills, decision-making skills, skills to help them be citizens in this huge and complex world.  We wanted children to develop their own powers to help confront all sorts of situations they might find themselves in, especially bullying.  10 years.  And that problem is still an issue in our schools, and society. Initially we wrote everything on notepads, putting it in the computer ...